Stanford's David Shaw lashes out over Sarkisian's fake injury claim

Oct. 8, 2013
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Stanford Cardinal head coach David Shaw calls a play against the Washington Huskies in the third quarter at Stanford Stadium. The Cardinal defeated the Huskies 31-28. / Cary Edmondson, USA TODAY Sports

by Daniel Uthman, USA TODAY Sports

by Daniel Uthman, USA TODAY Sports

In the aftermath of Stanford's 31-28 victory against Washington on Saturday night, Huskies coach Steve Sarkisian accused Cardinals players of faking injuries to slow the faster-paced offense that Washington has ridden to a successful start in 2013.

On Tuesday on the Pac-12 Coaches Teleconference, Stanford coach David Shaw vehemently objected and defended his players, coaches and program.

"I must say that we don't fake injuries, we don't and we never will," Shaw said. "We don't condone it, we don't teach it, we don't allow it. We've never done it, and if we didn't do it against Oregon, why would we do it against Washington?"

Late Saturday night, Sarkisian had told Seattle radio station KJR, "Their defensive-line coach (Randy Hart) was telling them to sit down. I guess that's how we play here at Stanford, so we'll have to prepare for that next time. At some point, we'll get repaid for it. That never serves a purpose for us, and we'll never do that."

On the same teleconference Tuesday, Sarkisian was asked about Shaw's comments, to which he replied: "I don't know exactly what was said (by Shaw today), what I do know is what I said yesterday. We saw what we saw, we'll leave it at that. Two reasonable people can disagree on something and move forward."

Shaw said "there has been communication" with the Pac-12 about the matter. When asked if he has spoken to Sarkisian, Shaw said, "No comment." When asked the same question about Shaw, Sarkisian responded, "No comment."

When asked whether he believes the matter is done with or he expects to discuss it with the Pac-12 office, Sarkisian responded, "I'm done with it."

Dave Hirsch, the Pac-12's vice president for communications, told USA TODAY Sports: "I would foresee no public action taken by the conference at this point."

Hirsch said Shaw spoke Monday with Woodie Dixon, the league's senior vice president of business affairs, who has oversight of football. The conversation was apparently concerning Sarkisian's allegations. Hirsch said he wasn't certain whether Sarkisian had contacted the league, saying only that coaches routinely contact the league office after games to discuss officials' calls or other occurrences.

Shaw was strongly displeased that one of his assistants, defensive line coach Hart, was accused by name of ordering seniors Ben Gardner and Shayne Skov to fake injuries.

"Not to mention it's unprofessional to call out an assistant coach for doing so," Shaw said. "The only assistant coach I've ever known to order players to fake injuries coaches at Washington, and he's admitted to it."

Shaw was referring to Washington assistant Tosh Lupoi, who admitted to doing so in a 2010 game against Oregon when he was an assistant at Cal. Lupoi was suspended one game for the incident.

Shaw then expressed further displeasure about Sarkisian's comment about faking injuries being part of the way Stanford plays. "How we play at Stanford is five penalties per game," Shaw retorted Tuesday. "How we play has led to three BCS bowls and a 100% graduation rate. I'm not going to put that all on the line to beat Washington. We've done it in a way that has been the right way."

Shaw also pointed out that Stanford has beaten Washington in four of the teams' past five meetings, but that after that one loss â?? by a 17-13 score last season â?? the Cardinal didn't complain. "We handled it, we congratulated Washington, we took it and we moved on."

Shaw continued, "It's my job to run this program, and I've been given strict guidelines about how this program should be run with integrity. To have that questioned by something that someone thought that they saw is just wrong. I think it's unprofessional to call out an assistant coach on another team by name."

Finally, Shaw said of Gardner and Skov, "Those are two of the hardest working kids in the country, especially in our conference. To say those guys are faking injuries to slow them down is disrespectful to everything we've done here."